More on the House Obamacare Repeal Discharge Petition

Rachael Slobodien |
August 21, 2017

Late last week, the House Freedom Caucus took a big step to show they aren’t finished with the fight to repeal Obamacare. In an effort to ensure legislation to repeal Obamacare actually gets to the House floor for a vote,Jim Jordan (R-OH), Tom Garrett (R-VA), and Scott Perry (R-PA) filed a discharge petition.

What is a discharge petition?

A very powerful, though often underutilized tool, a discharge petition gives House members the opportunity to go around House Leadership andforce the Speaker of the House to bring legislation that may otherwise not make it out of committee to the floor for a vote.

In order to be successful, the petition must garner218 signatures. And Club for Growth is determined to do all that we can to make sure the House Freedom Caucus can get to the magic number of 218. With Congressmen like Jim Jordan leading the fight, the chances are good, but we will have to wait until Congress returns to know for sure.

Why does this matter?

The reason members of Congress are elected in the first place is so that they fulfill the promises they made to voters when campaigning for office. Even if the discharge petition is unable to meet the requisite number of signatures needed, the message this exercise sends is still an important one. The American people are fortunate to have the House Freedom Caucus and other conservative elected officials who understand the importance ofkeeping their promisesto their constituents.

The Republican Senate’s inability to repeal Obamacare provided a stark, unfortunate reminder aboutthe number of Republicans in Washington who say one thing and do another. This is why Club for Growth PAC works so hard to make sure more and more free-market conservatives make it to Congress.

We will continue to keep you updated on any developments on the discharge petition once Congress returns. In the meantime, Club for Growth will continue to do what it does best—fight for pro-growth economic policies.

Please note that Members must physically go to the House floor to add their name to the petition. With Congress currently in recess until Labor Day, most members are currently back home in their districts.